Many of the men who performed with A. Jack Thomas (standing, center) were highly skilled, classically trained musicians. Harrison Ward (seated 4th from left), who played flute, piccolo and violin with equal facility, studied ...

"Cab" Calloway began his meteoric rise in the world of music in Baltimore. Inspired by Chick Webb, Calloway put together his own band, playing Dixieland and hot jazz at a restaurant at Gay and Baltimore streets. By the ...

Baltimore's famous Commonwealth Band was said to be the best musical organization in the city - black or white. For many years the leader of the band was A. Jack Thomas, who later founded the Aeolian Conservatory in ...

James Hubert "Eubie" Blake was born on February 7, 1883, in a four room house, 319 Forrest Street (near Belair Market). Blake studied harmony with W. Lewellyn Wilson and conducting with Will Marion Cook (who had studied ...

Marian Anderson sang at Baltimore's Trinity A.M.E. Church under the auspices of the Cosmopolitan Choral Society in 1919. The concert was reviewed by the Afro-American's critic, W. Llewellyn Wilson. (Photo courtesy of RCA Victor)

Gershwin changed the title of the opera to Porgy and Bess so that Anne Brown would share equal billing with baritone Todd Duncan. The premiere took place on October 10, 1935, at New York's Alvin Theatre. (Photo courtesy ...

Baltimore's Municipal Music program supported the all-white Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and summer music concerts by Park Bands. In the summer of 1922 the Board of Estimates made a small appropriation to provide Òcolored ...

Billie Holiday, the daughter of Clarence Holiday, a banjo and guitar player who worked with Fletcher Henderson's band in the early 1930s, and Sadie Harris, won an appearance at the Apollo Theatre in 1933. Paralyzed by stage ...

During World War II the clubs along Pennsylvania Avenue were filled with servicemen from Fort Meade, Aberdeen and Edgewood. Bandleaders who had lost musicians to the draft filled their empty chairs in their bands with ...

"Male impersonator deluxe," Detroit Reds (Laura Livingstone), headlined the floor shows and revues at the Merry-Go-Round and served as master of ceremonies at the Club Orleans.